An F-16 fighter jet with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, the elite aerial demonstration team, crashed on Wednesday morning in a Southern California desert, with the pilot safely ejecting moments before impact, according to the military.
The pilot was in stable condition and was receiving medical care, Staff Sgt. Jovante Johnson, an Air Force spokesman, said in an email on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, which military officials said happened around 10:45 a.m., during a training mission over controlled airspace.
The F-16C Fighting Falcon struck a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert near Trona, Calif., creating a plume of smoke and a boom that could be heard in the surrounding area, according to emergency responders and witnesses.
The jet crashed about two miles south of Trona Airport, but was not using the airport, George Bass, the facility’s manager, said in a phone interview. Military aircraft have a regular presence in the area, he said.
A video circulating online appeared to show the pilot’s parachute open just as the fighter jet burst into flames.
As of 2021, the most recent estimates available from the Air Force, an F-16C cost $18.8 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration referred questions about the incident to the military.
The Thunderbirds are based at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas, which is about 200 miles east of the crash site.
The unit is known for pushing the envelope with its death-defying maneuvers and precision at shows, which have drawn millions of spectators since the Thunderbirds were created in 1953.
Just 18 inches separates the F-16s from each other during some maneuvers, which have names like the opposing knife-edge pass and the delta loop.
The crash was the second near Trona in recent years. In 2022, a Navy pilot was killed after his F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed in a remote unpopulated area. The pilot, Lt. Richard Bullock, was flying a training mission, the Navy said.
Thunderbirds pilots, too, have been involved in several fatal crashes, including in 2018, when Maj. Stephen Del Bagno was killed while training in Nevada. At the time, he was performing a split-S routine and lost consciousness and control of his F-16.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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